The Cheering Over, Haitians Face New Trials

Published: November 23, 1994

To the Editor:

Having lived in and reported on Haiti on and off for five years, I've found your coverage reflects an exclusively Northern perspective.

On Oct. 15, Jean-Bertrand Aristide returned to Haiti's presidential palace, where, flanked by Northern diplomats and standing behind a bulletproof-glass encasement, he released a dove. Less than a month later, President Clinton has announced the withdrawal, by Dec. 1, of the first 6,000 American troops. The crisis, it seems, is over.

But for the Haitian people, a new trial is at hand. President Aristide's term is nearly elapsed. The grass-roots organizations that elected him have been coerced, co-opted and killed off. The military leaders have been legitimized by golden exile and even honored by Jimmy Carter, who invited Gen. Raoul Cedras to teach his Sunday school class; their underlings remain at large.

The international lending agencies have already taken command of Haiti's economic future with a program allowing the Haitian elite along with foreign businesses to continue exploiting Haiti's "price-competitive" labor force (the lowest paid of the region).

Many of the Haitian poor have welcomed the United States troops, who they believe will rescue them from the military's thugs. Haitians were asked to bring known criminals to the Americans, who in turn are supposed to escort them to local jails. So far, the faith of the Haitian poor has been misplaced. Those arrested at the front gate are released out the back.

On Oct. 30, more than 100 prisoners "broke out" of the national penitentiary when guards opened their cells. The problem is that the jailers are good friends with the jailed, having worked side by side with them during the military rule.

Haiti's remaining grass-roots leaders have been more wary of the occupation. Chavannes Jean-Baptiste, a cabinet member in President Aristide's Government and leader of Haiti's largest peasant movement, returned to his base in the town of Hinche after three years in exile and hiding. He warned the cheering crowd not to count on the United States Army. "Only Haitians can free Haiti," he proclaimed.

Three years ago the United States responded to Haiti's bloody coup with overt indignation and covert support. Secretary of State James Baker declared to the Organization of American States in October 1991, "Until President Aristide's Government is restored, this junta will be treated as a pariah, without support, and without a future."

But the military and their sponsors in the Haitian elite were given no reason to believe that the United States would interfere.

President Bush delayed a month in joining the O.A.S. embargo adopted just after the coup. By February 1992 Mr. Bush actually lifted the embargo for United States companies with factories in Haiti. Sears, Wal-Mart and American baseball manufacturers continued to profit from the junta -- and indirectly insure its future.

President Aristide, meanwhile, became the victim of a Central Intelligence Agency propaganda campaign that questioned his human rights record and leaked false documents that diagnosed him as a psychopath. C.I.A. complicity did not end there. Last winter Toto Constant, head of the violent paramilitary group Fraph, handed me a thick binder, complete with color copies, documenting Mr. Aristide's maniacal tendencies.

As I interviewed Mr. Constant in his sitting room, he looked me straight in the eye and began every sentence with the phrase "The C.I.A. has found that . . ." You finally reported last month that Toto Constant was on the C.I.A. payroll.

The generals retire to honorable exile, earned at the cost of thousands of Haitian lives, while Mr. Aristide stands in a glass box, caged by his American saviors. The Haitian people have lost all that they won in their first free elections. Though the crisis seems to be over from America's perspective, it is no victory for Haiti. CATHERINE ORENSTEIN New York, Nov. 18, 1994